This invention relates to what is generally referred to here as impulse injector apparatus, and more particularly to injector apparatus which operates to produce pulsed delivery of injected material, with the material moving during a delivery pulse at high velocity and under the urging of a compressed captured gas supply which is permitted rapidly to expand.
Apparatus as contemplated by the invention has a vast variety of uses, as exemplified by some of the uses contemplated in the construction industry alone. For instance, and when using water as the material injected by the apparatus, it may be employed effectively to prepare elongate holes or bores extending into the ground, usable in mounting enforcement or anchoring bars. With a cementitous material, such as grout, the apparatus may be employed in preparing grout deposits within the ground, for anchoring the ends of reinforcement bars. Power companies and utilities use underground vaults for the housing of transformers, couplers and related equipment, and the apparatus of the invention may be usefully employed to reinforce and waterproof the walls of such vaults with the injection of grout, bentonite slurry, or whatever other material is dictated by the specific repair operation. In these and other uses, high-velocity, pulse-type injections produced by the apparatus result in a speedy and thorough penetration of the ground by the injected material. By explaining some of the contemplated uses of the equipment, it is not intended to limit the invention, as the apparatus has obvious utility in other operations where high-velocity, pulsed injections are desired.
The impulse injector of the invention is simply constructed, rendering it easy to repair and maintain. It is relatively easily incorporated with a vehicle equipped with a power driven pump, to produce an injection instrumentality readily moved from one place to another. The output from the injector apparatus may be delivered through a flexible hose or conduit to an operator manipulated nozzle, which diverts the injection material to the precise location desired.
A general object of this invention, therefore, is to provide improved apparatus for producing pulsed injections of material delivered at high velocities.
Another object is to provide such apparatus which is operated through controlled, sequential delivering and then dumping of hydraulic pressure fluid to and then from operating parts of the apparatus.
Yet another object is to provide injector apparatus producing a pulsed injection of material, where the material is propelled from the equipment under the urging of a rapidly expanding, compressed, captured gas supply.
Another object is to provide such apparatus which includes a flexible conduit receiving pulses of injection material, and a nozzle member joined with this conduit directing the material to the desired final location.
In one form of the invention, an interspersing device is provided which can be controlled to supply the nozzle member first with one type of injection material supplied from another source than the impulse injector, and subsequently with a pulse of injection material supplied from the impulse injector.